ROCKFORD — Rockford police union attorney Tim O’Neil says he plans to file a grievance over the firing of Rockford police officer Oda Poole, and he expects to win.

“I predict Oda will be back to work by Thanksgiving,” O’Neil said this afternoon.

The city announced Poole’s dismissal from the Rockford Police Department today, saying he is not fit for duty.

Poole was one of two officers involved in the August 2009 fatal shooting of Mark Anthony Barmore, 23, in the basement of a downtown church.

The city stated in a press release that an evaluation revealed that Poole, a seven-year veteran of the force, is no longer fit for duty.

Poole may seek a review of his dismissal with the Rockford Board of Fire and Police Commissioners or a labor arbitrator. O’Neil said he plans to seek an arbitrator’s decision.

Poole and the city had conflicting experts, O’Neil said, with Poole’s evaluator saying he was fine to return to work and the city’s saying no.

“Except they looked and looked and looked until they found someone who would say he wasn’t fit for duty,” O’Neil said.

City Legal Director Patrick Hayes said the city did nothing of the sort.

Hayes said it chose an evaluator deemed neutral by Chicago and its police union for several years. He added that the city’s evaluator was the final arbiter in several Chicago cases involving fitness for duty and is seen as a respected neutral arbitrator by the city of Chicago and its police union.

Hayes said he was informed by the Rockford police union that Poole’s evaluator had not done a police fitness-for-duty evaluation before.

O’Neil objected to the city’s release of Poole’s employment status, saying it’s personnel information and should be treated as confidential.

“From day one, this wasn’t about the facts or what happened,” O’Neil said. “It’s been about politics and appeasing people.”

Hayes again disagreed with O’Neil’s assessment.

“It has never been our desire to do anything but what’s fair for all involved,” he said, “from the officer to the department to the city and to the taxpayers.”

Chief Chet Epperson ordered Poole to undergo a fitness evaluation last summer as part of the discipline he handed down because of the Barmore shooting.

The city’s Police Pension Board granted a disability pension last month to the other officer involved in the shooting, Stan North. The pension was granted based on the emotional trauma North suffered during the incident.

In a statement released this afternoon, Terry Peterson, president of the Police Benevolent & Protective Association Unit 6, also expressed disappointment that the city made Poole’s personnel matters public.

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He called the basis for the city’s decision “erroneous and misleading.”

“There will be appeals of this action,” Peterson said in the statement. “We are confident Officer Oda Poole will be vindicated of this character assassination and fully reinstated in this process.